Groll - Culture, Places, Technology
The Groll have been described as ugly brutish people, but there's more to them than meets the eye. Yes, they live in mud huts on the edges of swamps, and their technology goes no further than primitive metalurgy, but they are accomlished hunters, despite their obvious mental disadvantages. The Groll don't make mental associations between abstract visual symbols and meaning. Now, there are some caveats. The Groll have no problem memorizing maps, for example, but they can't perform math from visual cues - and they don't like to count things, generally just grouping them into singular, a bunch, a lot, and a whole bunch. They don't go in much for art, (not even cave paintings beyond primitive designs like triangles, circles and squares) but they recognize pictures of things if they are concrete images of them. They would know what a painting of a bowl of fruit is, for example, but they might not recognize a line drawing of a bowl with a pear in it as being a bowl of fruit. It's simply difficult for them to make the association between an abstract image and what it represents. They also have problems with most Human tongues, and speak in short clipped words, and they always refer to themselves in third person. Language The Groll tongue is limited. Groll do not like to use numbers. They don't use particles, conjunctions are rare, and for the most part their language is a collection of verbs and nouns with a few scattered adjectives and pronouns. They can learn other languages to an extent, but still tend to clip the unfamiliar grammar. MindBlock Groll are naturally mindblocked, meaning that they have a null-psi potential. This prevents them from using any form of telepathy or psionics, but it also makes them virtually immune to mental attacks by the psionically endowed. All attempts to telepathicall link with a Groll are met by blank nothingness, as if they weren't even there. They do have an aura, and can be tracked that way, but their minds and emotions are undetectable. Physical Attributes The most prominent feature of a Groll is the chin. It is huge, as was us the mouth, which is completely filled with rows of razor sharp fangs filed down to points. Their noses are small, too small for their faces, and it is shrunk back. Their his eyes areenormous along with the shape of their skulls, which was very wide. Their heads are topped by a thick shaggy main of hair. The main advantage of the Groll race is strength and durability. They're about ten times stronger than the average human, with dense musculature and bones. Imagine a gorilla and then amplify it a bit and you'll have a Groll. They're about as ugly too, but in a different way. Their noses are small, their chins and brow are massive, and they have two rows of sharp fangs for teeth. Their hair color varies, usually it's red, orange, yellow, and in some cases green with the occasional and rare blue. Groll heal rapidly, are immune to most diseases and some poisons. They don't regenrate.